"There's an enormous deficit of trust - a lack of confidence," Mr Chakravarti acknowledged. After independence, Mugabe's government adopted the use of Zimbabwean dollar in place of the Rhodesian dollar. Hard currency (the US dollar) permitted Zimbabwe to start growing economically after the long Mugabe slide, and individuals and businesses to prosper. Two people were seriously wounded near the former offices of satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo. Economic growth was steady at the independence period and the Zimbabwean dollar was doing well against the benchmark US dollar. VideoChina's dilemma over wild meat trade, The fight for women's prayer rights in Israel. Every minute, every hour, every day, the prices are just changing," said a wholesale trader who did not want to give his name. That inevitably has led, as always, to hyperinflation and monetary collapse. Zimbabwe’s economic weaknesses are unsustainable. Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe - The economy: Upon independence in 1980, Robert Mugabe’s government moved cautiously to alter the pattern of management that it inherited from the white minority regime. Bollywood star questioned in India drugs case, Swiss vote on abandoning free movement with EU, Prestigious art prize names first Aboriginal winner, 'It makes you feel part of something bigger again' Video'It makes you feel part of something bigger again', Striking news pictures from around the world, China's dilemma over wild meat trade. Fuel imports stopped abruptly, trading has been badly affected, and many businesses have stopped accepting the local bond notes - known here as Zollars or Zim bollars - which black marketeers are now valuing at four, or even five, to the US dollar. I am a refugee doing a finance masters, how do I secure an internship? When President Emmerson Mnangagwa campaigned in July for Zimbabwe’s presidency, he promised to be a business friendly leader, and to return his country’s economy to twentieth century times of plenty and prosperity. The government is committed to reforms, so we need people to really be patient.". The republic of Zimbabwe attained independence on April 18, 1980. China may yet help Mnangagwa – but in exchange for multi-years worth of precious minerals and Virginia tobacco at discounted prices. The country ran a budgetary surplus. This was partly because under the unity government of 2009-2013, when Tendai Biti of the Movement for Democratic Change was finance minister, there were no such controls and there were plenty of US dollars and no questionable bond notes and Treasury bills. — "We are suffering. The Conversation UK receives funding from these organisations. Mnangagwa’s administration is struggling to overcome the national economic destruction wreaked on Zimbabwe over two decades under Robert Mugabe. Things can change. Zimbabwe’s financial system is living on borrowed time and borrowed money. Zimbabwe's new finance minister has recently won some international support for his attempts to chart a path towards financial stability - a path that involves significant spending cuts and privatisation, alongside plans for the foreign debt repayments necessary to unlock new international loans.